Pat Howard: Browns deal another blow to fans who expect worst

Online Extras

MORE ONLINE: To read more football stories, from high school to the NFL click here.

MORE ONLINE: To see more online content about the Cleveland Browns, click here.

We were just settling into the dinner break at Wednesday night's Commitment to Erie Awards when my colleague and fellow Cleveland Browns fan Terry Cascioli walked up and held his phone before my eyes.

On the screen was a text message from someone relaying that ESPN's Adam Schefter was reporting that the Browns had traded big-name running back Trent Richardson to Indianapolis for the Colts' first-round pick in next year's draft. My first thought was that someone might be messing with Cascioli.

Schefter generally knows what he's talking about. But the words on that phone were merely hearsay at that point.

Now we Cleveland fans have learned the hard way that when the subject's the Browns, and what we're hearing leaves us shaking our heads, we might as well start getting used to the disappointment. And then start the clock ticking on the next.

This is the fan base, for instance, that generally took heart last year when the franchise was bought by a truck stop magnate who has deep pockets and, unlike the previous rich guy, actually seems to like football. It was only a matter of months before new owner Jimmy Haslam's company, Pilot Flying J, became the target of a major fraud investigation, its managers started pleading guilty, and its customers started suing.

Naturally.

In any event, a check of my Twitter feed Wednesday night confirmed that not only was Schefter reporting the trade, the Browns were announcing it. Strange, but true.

Richardson's overnight switch from indispensable to gone highlights the pitiless dynamic of professional sports in general, and of football in particular. I'm at once fascinated, entertained and repelled by the relentlessly Darwinian nature of America's favorite game.

And now a gazillion fans have internalized that mindset in the form of their fantasy football rosters. Most still have a real-life team to pin their loyalties to, but they also invest a lot of time and cranial bandwidth in tracking what each jock in their virtual assemblage has done for them lately.

So a Browns fan might be downcast about his team peddling a guy who the day before was presumed to be a cornerstone of the latest redevelopment project. But if Richardson's on his fantasy roster, that fan might find a bright spot in the plausible prospect that he might be more useful to that cause in Indianapolis.

Back in the real world, there are legitimate football arguments for the Browns' first-year brain trust dealing the erstwhile next big thing at a loss. They start with the view that the team's overriding need is to find a top-flight quarterback, and that the draft is generally where they're found.

There are theories rooted in team culture as well, which is a big deal given Cleveland's legacy of losing. Newly retired linebacker Scott Fujita, a thoughtful guy who played with the Browns last season, wrote in a Fox Sports column that as a rookie Richardson didn't make a great impression as a teammate and just might be the means for sending a message to the rest of the squad that no one's bigger than the team.

Whatever the mix of reasons, and whatever the vision of the new regime, for many Browns fans the surprise is colored by a weary fatalism. For every fan who sees some logic in the trade, it seems, there's another who views it as the beginning of one more inevitable triumph of experience over hope.

The latter fan is as sure as he's sitting there that Trent Richardson will run wild for the Colts. Then come game time, that fan will settle in front of the television, pop open a beer, and start waiting for the other shoe to drop.